The Scale of THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2 Is Going to Be Epic as It Features 1,500 Orc Actors in Full Make-Up
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is going to be extremely epic in scale as we’ve learned that 1,500 orc actors will appear this season in full makeup.
This news from Nerdist, who explained from a set visit: “Season two has 1,500 actors in orc makeup. The prosthetics are a four-part application process including a cowl, a forehead, a chin, and a face.
“These can be mixed and matched to create unique looks. It takes two people two and a half hours to apply each set of prosthetics.”
Now, while that is really cool and impressive, I do want to point out that Peter Jackson used over 20,000 extras in his Lord of the Rings films. While 1,500 is nowhere near that, I do like that they are putting in the effort of using real people as opposed to CGI.
It’s also explained that this season of the series is going to feature a lot more big scale action than the first season. This is something the creative team has been teasing over the past several months.
Co-showrunner Patrick McKay previously said: “We love a good battle. The plan with Season 2 would be to do something much bigger, on a much grander scale that would take place not just overnight, but over multiple days, weeks, months and episodes.”
Charlotte Brändström, the producing director for Season 2, says this battle will be “ten times bigger” than the one witnessed in the first run. “It’s really the battle of the darkness against the light with some very dark and quite violent moments.”
Executive producer Lindsey Weber also shared: “Things have taken a very intense turn since Sauron is back and moving the chess pieces around the board. “So we get to have a different kind of action and see Middle-earth in some more terrifying moments.”
The series takes place “thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
“Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
“From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”
In Season 2, “Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will.
“Building on Season 1’s epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity.
“Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.”
The series is being developed by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. The Rings of Power Season 2 premieres August 29th on Prime Video.